Religion News: Filmmaker says he found Noah’s Ark

Noah's Ark is found (again), a look at a book about the afterlife, getting to know a scholar on Islamic feminist thinkers, and more.

A filmmaker from Hong Kong says he and a team from the religious organization Noah’s Ark Ministries International have discovered the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey.

According to wire reports, Yeung Wing-Cheung and the group filmed inside the wooden structure discovered on the mountain. Yeung says wood samples were taken from the structure and tested in Iran, where they were carbon-dated to the time of what was thought to be Noah’s flood.

Yeung has not revealed the exact location of the wooden remains.

There have been more than six previous claims of discovering Noah’s Ark, and none have been proven true.

This Week in History

- On May 1, 1776, Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt established the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria, Germany).

- On May 4, 1415, religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics by the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Constance.

- On May 5, 1925, an arrest warrant is served to John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.

Survey Says

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, shows that prayer is a common religious practice in America, with nearly six-in-ten adults in the U.S. saying they pray at least once a day.

Good Book?

“Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife” by Lisa Miller

Drawing on history and popular culture, biblical research and everyday beliefs, “Heaven” offers a new understanding of one of the most cherished — and shared — ideals of spiritual life.

Lisa Miller raises debates and discussions not just about our visions of the afterlife, but about how our beliefs have influenced the societies we have built and the lifestyles to which we have subscribed, exploring the roots of our beliefs in heaven and how these have evolved throughout the ages to offer comfort and hope.

She also reveals how the notion of heaven has been used for manipulation — to promulgate goodness and evil — as inspiration for selfless behavior, and as justification for mass murder.

Get to Know … Isobel Coleman

Isobel Coleman is the senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy with the Council on Foreign Relations.

Her areas of interest include economic development; gender issues in the Middle East and Southwest Asia; foreign aid; microfinance; and education reform in the Middle East.

She is author of the book “Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East,” which shows how Muslim women and men are fighting back with progressive interpretations of Islam to support women’s rights in a growing movement of Islamic feminism.

In the book, Coleman highlights a number of Muslim men and women who are among the most influential Islamic feminist thinkers, and illuminates the on-the-ground experiences of women who are driving change.

The Word

Dar-e-Mehr: A North American term used by the Zoroastrian faith to refer to their house of worship. It literally means "a portal to all that is good: charity, devotion, kindness and love." – religioustolerance.org

Religion Around the World

Religious makeup of Guyana

Hindu: 28.4 percent

Pentecostal: 16.9 percent

Roman Catholic: 8.1 percent

Anglican: 6.9 percent

Seventh Day Adventist: 5 percent

Methodist: 1.7 percent

Jehovah Witness: 1.1 percent

Other Christian: 17.7 percent

Muslim: 7.2 percent

Other: 4.3 percent

None: 4.3 percent

- CIA Factbook

GateHouse News Service

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